Why the World Needs English Majors

Does the world need English majors?

Technology folks, jokingly, may not think so.

Or, relatives with their hearts set on having a doctor in the family, may be discouraging.

After all, the argument goes, with Grammarly and other artificial intelligence tools, isn’t studying English a waste of time?

You’d be surprised.

Here are my thoughts on why the world needs English majors.

• Someone has to make sure words are spelled correctly. (Especially in the wild).
• Who else knows how to write clearly?
• Not all writing needs to be simply the facts, ma’am, to be valuable.
• Who else studies the difference between utility communication and beauty?

I polled friends with English majors and they came up with other ideas.

Join me.

(Points awarded if you find errors–and this post is bound to have them.)

Spelling, Grammar, and English Majors

Why are we needed?

“So we can correct everyone’s grammar!” My writer friend joked.

But, was she really joking?

A literary agent weighed in with another observation. “We [English majors] know how to spell and construct sentences. A lost art in my opinion.”

Once upon a time with my spanking-new degree in hand, I entered a bank.

Standing in the lobby wondering whom [!] to approach, I smiled when a middle-aged manager asked if I needed help

“Actually, I think I can help you,” I said with a twenty-three year-old’s confidence. “You have a misspelled word outside on your sign.”

He froze. “Uh, which one?”

I politely told him and left, proud to have demonstrated the value of my degree.

Ah, but, what about Spellcheck?

I’m not impressed.

AppleSpell often “translates” my correctly spelled words (like, say, Ule,) into something that makes zero sense. (Why would I type “tule” when spelling my name?)

(I do, alas, make spelling errors–usually typos. Which is why I run Grammarly and Spellcheck on my computer–even though I often have to correct their too-often misguided “corrections.”)

Clear writing and English Majors.

Here’s a list of 100 famous people who share my degree. Some write/wrote more clearly than others.

For example, do you know what James Joyce wrote about in Ulysses? (Personal nemesis).

My first day of English 1A, the instructor began with a lecture about “Clearing out the dead wood,” in our writing.

She spent the rest of the quarter using a red pen to slash her way through our word thickets.

Thanks to her, I learned to communicate more effectively.

Another friend pointed out a similar idea. “The world needs English majors to translate the communication of engineers.”

My husband is an engineer . . . let me explain. (He loves Jane Austen, by the way).

“Clarity and precision in writing,” said a homeschooling friend.

She’s correct. You people need us.

But, what are the English majors majoring in?

As a student who graduated a dozen years ago recounted:

One of my college literature professors half-jokingly, half-seriously referred to us as “arbiters for the dead” and “paleontologists of the mind.”

He said we give new life to the fossilized voices (preserved in books, journals, novels, etc.) of past writers/thinkers and help prevent their knowledge from being lost or distorted by actively discussing it and bringing it into the current cultural consciousness.

So, part of our mission is to keep stories and ideas alive to share with later generations.

She continued.

Another, more pragmatic professor, simply said that English majors are taught essential critical thinking, analytic, and communication skills that society needs to function smoothly, and so we enrich whatever job or social sphere we are in.

(As you can see, the question of “what good is an English degree if you don’t want to teach?” came up fairly often throughout the getting of said degree!)

Ah, yes, a bestselling author agreed. “We are critical thinkers. Thinking requires WORDS and perspective. Literature provides opportunity for both.”

A teacher pointed out her university differentiated English majors’ programs.

“My university had two tracks: One was geared toward writing and one was for literature. Mine was the literature track because I was going to be a teacher specializing in reading.”

Ah, reading and loving literature!

The English majors I know–and I’m on this list–love to read.

Stories are important.

Literature teaches you about rhythm and rhyme–which can be how children first gain a love of words and thus reading.

My post about The Five Little Monkeys and Learning to Read explains the connection.

The point should be to love reading, not to be subjected all the time to facts, deciphering facts, and thinking only about facts–per Professor Gradgrind in Charles Dickens’ Hard Times.

Gradgrind reminds me of a problem I see as a Bible teacher in 21st century America.

The absence and lack of understanding of metaphor and its cousins.

What is nuance? What are metaphors? How about similes? Are words just words spilled across the page without anything bigger than individually interpreting the (preferably) short little words?

The Bible often uses metaphors when talking about Jesus or spiritual concepts.

If you are “decoding” words only for the most absolutist meaning, you’ll miss the joy and pleasure of what the text actually says.

That’s particularly true in understanding the Bible.

Part of the problem is too many children are being taught just to read for facts–not for beauty, understanding, or simply joy.

I believe a continual emphasis on facts alone stunts literature, thinking, and imagination.

Why spend time reading and studying literature?

At heart an English major loves words and ideas.

We’re not machines.

We’re people with hearts and clever tongues who love stories.

As my niece’s friend said, “Well, if I’m going deep, we have hope for a better world because we’ve read” about it in great books.

That’s why the world needs English majors.

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